


The Planet of the Telepathic Cats

by duchessofthemoonbase



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Cats, F/M, Fluff, KITTEHS, smol tiny fluffy kittens!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5891398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duchessofthemoonbase/pseuds/duchessofthemoonbase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Clara visit a planet where the cats take on your personality. This won't reveal anything about their hidden feelings for each other, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Planet of the Telepathic Cats

**Author's Note:**

> I've been playing a lot of Neko Atsume...so this happened.

“So…” the Doctor said nervously, wringing his hands together. “Exactly _how_ cross are you?”

Clara clenched her hands on the Tardis railing and sighed. “I was stuck in 16th century Moscow for three _days,_ Doctor. You can’t just get distracted by a Sea Devil Election and pop off to fix their voting machines! You could have at least let me know!”

The Doctor paced around the console room, staring at his feet. “Well did you at least have fun?”

“ _No_ , Doctor! I did not! I had to take shelter in the basement of a church and steal food from strangers! It was awful!” Clara grabbed her bag and put on her coat, rushing out the door. “I’ve had enough, I’m leaving. I’ll see you next Wednesday.”

“I’ll make it up to you Clara, I promise!” he yelled after her as the Tardis doors shut. He certainly hoped he could. Clara was everything to him, and upsetting her made him feel like he was walking around with a knife lodged in his heart.

But what could he do to make it up to her? He started thinking about things Clara liked. Books? Soufflés? Soldier boys? Jane Austen? Cats- _cats_.

He knew exactly what he was going to do.

***

Clara returned to her apartment from Coal Hill at four, changing into a soft white shirt, black leggings, and brown flats. Very comfy, but comfortable enough to run in if she and the Doctor ran into any trouble. She had no idea where he was taking her today, but she figured it would be good, considering how much he had screwed up last week.

The truth was, Clara was starting to get exhausted. Exhausted of the way she and the Doctor always danced around the words they so desperately wanted to say to each other, but could never bring themselves to, for fear of crashing their whole relationship down altogether. She was tiring of the hidden glances and the mutual pining that kept stretching on and on. It would have to come to a conclusion eventually. It had to.

Clara heard the familiar groaning of the Tardis in her living room and found the Doctor lounging on her sofa. He was flipping through a copy of _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ , wearing his blue coat over the old jumper with the holes in it.

“Ah, Clara,” he said, suddenly sitting up. “I have something for you.”

Clara raised her eyebrows. “You do?”

“Yes, a-um, an apology, for the Moscow incident last week.” The Doctor reached under his coat and pulled out a slightly crushed bouquet of yellow daisies tied with a pink ribbon. “Here,” he said bluntly, and held them out to her.

Clara giggled and kissed the Doctor on the cheek…she had only done that once before, Christmas a few months back.

“Thank you Doctor, that’s…that’s very sweet of you,” Clara said. She noticed he was blushing a bit and tried to hide her smile.

“That’s not all though,” the Doctor said. “You’re absolutely going to love where we’re going today.”

“Ohhh…” Clara laughed, bounding after him into the Tardis. “Do tell.”

The Doctor smiled gleefully as he fiddled with the buttons on the console. “The planet of the telepathic cats!”

“Telepathic cats?”

“An entire planet of cats that are telepathically receptive to other beings. You pet a cat, it starts acting like you.”

Clara laughed. “How can a cat act like you? They’re cats.”

The Doctor scoffed. “Trust me on this Clara, when you touch a cat and it starts acting like a massive control freak, you’ll know.”

Clara scowled, then sighed as she followed the Doctor out the door.

“Ohmygod, you weren't kidding,” Clara said, beginning to wander around. It really was a planet made for cats. Instead of grass, the planet’s entire surface was covered in what seemed to be a plush red carpet, and there was a faint smell of fish in the air. The plant life all resembled what you could only call cat toys that had mutated and grown to the height of trees. Many of them looked like weeping willows, only with tiny toy mice and clumps of feathers hanging from each branch.

“Ta-da,” the Doctor said, holding his arm out. “Planet of the telepathic cats.”

Clara sighed sadly.

“What?” the Doctor said. “I thought you loved cats!”

“I do! But in case you haven’t noticed, there are no cats around anywhere!”

The Doctor sighed. “Just wait a few minutes, they’ll come.”

Clara sat down on the plush carpet ground next to a flower that smelled vaguely of catnip, feeling the sun on her face. The Doctor was off in the distance, drawing calculations in the sand with a stick. They must have been sitting here for twenty minutes, at least, and Clara was starting to feel sleepy from the warmth of the sun and the soft carpet. Clara was just about to drift off when she felt the pressure of a tiny paw on her arm.

“Hello!” Clara squealed delightedly, finding herself face to face with a tiny brown cat. She scratched it behind the ears, immediately charmed by the cat’s large and glistening brown eyes. “Aren’t you lovely,” Clara said, continuing to pet the cat as the Doctor approached. Suddenly the cat glowed with blue light, and Clara gasped and pulled her hand away from it.

“Don’t worry,” The Doctor said. “That’s just the cat reading your brainwaves. It should start to take on your personality any second now.”

“Should I be concerned?”

The Doctor smirked. “Oh no, no, of course not. It’s perfectly natural for telepathic beings in this area of Galaxy Four. Well as long as…”

Clara frowned. “As long as _what,_ Doctor?”

“As long as you’ve got nothing to hide.” The Doctor grinned, put his hands in his pockets and sauntered away. Clara gulped. She was starting to wonder if this trip was a bad idea.

As soon as the Doctor had started walking, Clara’s cat jumped to her feet and began to follow him, nuzzling against his leg.

_Shit._

“Oh HELLO little kitty-cat,” the Doctor said smugly, scratching her under her chin. “You seem to be very fond of me, don’t you?”

Clara rolled her eyes. “Well we are best friends, so it makes sense, right?”

The Doctor smiled, “I suppose so.” He folded his legs and sat on the ground. Soon the cat had crawled into his lap and was nuzzling her head against his chest, purring. “Goodness Clara, your cat is very friendly, isn’t she?”

Clara cleared her throat. “Well I suppose it’s because I’m a nice person.” The Doctor met her eyes knowingly, as if offering a challenge.

“Look!” Clara said, pointing behind the Doctor. “There’s another one!” The Doctor jumped to his feet as a cat approached him. He was dark grey with piercing blue eyes, and two tiny white markings above his eyes, as if he had eyebrows.

The Doctor darted behind a tree.

Clara giggled. “Doctor, what are you doing?”

“Getting some shade.”

“I think you’re hiding from the cat.”

“I am not _hiding_ from the cat, Clara.”

Clara burst out laughing. “It sort of looks like you are.”

The grey cat found the Doctor behind the tree and he gasped, jumping away from it.

“Come on Doctor, just pet him. It’s not like you have anything to hide.”

“I don’t, I just don’t want to deal with a-AHHH”

Before the Doctor could finish his reasoning the grey cat had leaped up and swatted his hand with his paw, and his fur had already begun to glow a bright blue.

“Whoopsies,” Clara said smugly. The Doctor sat down next to Clara and groaned.

Clara’s cat had resumed her place snuggled up in the Doctor’s lap, while the Doctor’s cat simply sat in front of Clara, staring at her with wild blue eyes.

“Doctor,” Clara said nervously. “Your cat, it’s just…he’s just staring at me.”

The Doctor shrugged. “Maybe he’s not a snuggling sort of cat. Maybe he just finds you interesting and thinks your face is nice.”

Clara smiled. “I wouldn’t mind snuggling with him though. I’d love to. Even though he’s not quite the energetic kitten he used to be.”

The Doctor looked down at his shoes. “I think he’d like that. You should ask him, sometime.”

Then the brown cat climbed out of the Doctor’s lap and approached the grey cat, nudging him gently with her paw. The grey cat jumped a bit, startled at first, but soon began nuzzling his cheek against the brown cat, purring.

Clara turned to the Doctor and smiled. “I think they like each other.”

The Doctor pulled Clara to him and smiled, stroking her cheek with his hand. “I think that’s been obvious for quite some time…” he whispered.

And suddenly Clara knew this was the moment, the one where she would finally decide to free herself from burying her endless affection for this man, and leaned up to kiss him. She twisted her fingers in his grey curls and sighed with happiness and relief, feeling the warmth of her lips pressing against his. All of those unspoken thoughts were finally free, and the constraining ache in her heart had turned to lightness and joy within only a few seconds.

Clara pulled away and giggled, as she and the Doctor smiled at each other bashfully.

“Look,” the Doctor said, pointing at the cats. They were continuously bumping their tiny noses together, as if they were kissing.

“I guess they really are getting telepathic signals from us,” Clara said, glowing with happiness as she watched the two cats cuddle up together underneath one of the strange willow trees for a nap.

Clara snuggled herself inside the Doctor’s coat and began playing with the holes in his jumper. “You know, declaring that you’re not my boyfriend and then flirting with me constantly was kind of a mixed signal.”

The Doctor sighed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want me after I changed.”

Clara laughed. “Of course I wanted you, you complete moron.”

“How should I know? You just called me a complete moron!” The Doctor shouted. “Talk about mixed signals.”

Clara snuggled deeper into his chest. “That’s a 21st century earth thing, where we insult people to hide how terribly in love with them we are.”

“That’s incredibly stupid. Think how many people I must have inadvertently declared my love for!”

Clara laughed and kissed him again. “Come on, Doctor, you complete bloody wonderful idiot, let’s go.”

The Doctor grabbed her hand and they set off for the Tardis, finally together in the way they had always hoped one day they would be.


End file.
